There is a protest act planned to take place near the Cabinet of Ministers building on March 19 by the Latvian Social Services and Transport workers association and Latvian Bus and Regional Carriers association in support of regional passenger carriers.

The goal of the protest act – to achieve the compensation of last year’s losses for domestic passenger carriers. If this is not achieved, local passenger transport routes could become at risk this April. Small carriers are in the most dangerous situation. One of them is Aluksne region’s Vidlataute, LTV and Latvian Radio news portal reports.

Chairman of Vidlatauto Edvins Strickis says the picture is far from positive: “We have no money to purchase fuel, we can hardly pay salaries, taxes need to be paid. If we do not receive a statement from the State Revenue Service (SRS), we are unable to participate in any events, not even the smallest contest for some school to carry students. We owe 95 thousand LVL for last year. Every next month adds 10-12 thousand LVL…”

There are two large carriers in Vidzeme – Cesis’ CATA and Valmiera’s transport company. There are also small ones in Gulbene, Madona and Aluksne. The manager of state allotted finances is Vidzeme’s Planning region. Its Council Chairman Nikolai Stepanov admits – there is an ideal amount of funding: “Small carriers work on routes that are located in suburbs, on poor roads, with low transport density. This makes their income lower than that of carriers working on city connecting routes. For small ones that have no money, waiting for November-December like last year is the same as suicide.”

Aluksne’s carriers are asked to be more economic. Passenger carriers, on the other hand, say that they have already started using smaller buses. There is nothing else to save money on. Strickis says: “Distances have been reducing kilometre by kilometre – there is nothing else. Most of our activity (around 40%) is student carrying, in order to reduce something there, some schools need to be terminated.”

Another factor is the reducing number of people to carry in the farthest regions. Vidlatauto is a private company, and its manager does not rule out the possibility of a worst case scenario – bankruptcy.

The debt of Vidzeme’s carriers is 490 thousand LVL. This amount could grow even more this year.

On Tuesday, March 19, Transport Minister Anrijs Matiss sent a letter to Environment Protection and Regional Development Minister Edmunds Sprudzs and Finance Minister Andris Vilks with a proposal on how to organize and finance regional passenger transportation.

Matiss offers a solution to the problem of organizing public transport. The ministry’s proposal is as follows: the Road Directorate is the client and contractor of regional passenger carriers, while the planning regions satisfy municipal and residents’ needs in regard to transportation within regions.

This solution would be appropriate for the planning regions – providing planning for regional development, coordination, municipal and other state management institutions’ cooperation. Function division would allow to plan inter-city and domestic routes, allow the optimization of routes, prevent the currently formed regional differences without reducing the general availability of services. It would also be possible to realize a single tariff policy across the country. This option would also allow carriers to reduce the amount of uncompensated losses, Transport Ministry reports.

The current uncompensated losses of passenger carriers for the services they provided in 2012 reach 0.82 million LVL. This amount is expected to reach 1.32 million LVL in 2013.

Matiss also said that he is prepared to forward the issue of compensating carriers’ losses for 2012. He says this is possible if carriers reach a united position on this issue.

Latvian Employers’ Confederation (LEC) is worried about ongoing events and their negative effect on the stability and future development of the country’s economy. LEC believes that stabilization of the financial situation requires careful coordination of actions between institutions and the government.

Compared to December 2017, level of producer prices in Latvian industry rose by 0.9 % in January 2018. Prices of products sold on the domestic market went up by 1.2 % and prices of exported products by 0.6 %.

Russia is trying to use the established situation to create chaos in Latvia. Efforts, however, are fated to fail, says chairman of Saeima’s Defence, Internal Affairs and Corruption Prevention Committee Ainars Latkovskis.

Latvia’s Finance Minister Dana Reizniece-Ozola has failed to prevent the decision made by United States Department of the Treasury, which is ruinous for the country’s financial sector and humiliating for its reputation, says chairman of New Conservative Party Jānis Bordāns.

Considering events of the last several days in the country’s banking sector and the arrest of the governor of the Bank of Latvia – Ilmārs Rimšēvičs – it is entirely possible that someone is currently realizing a massive information operation. Its structure and execution is not unlike the one observed in USA, France and Germany during the pre-election period, BNN was told by Latvia’s Defence Ministry.

«This situation is incredibly complicated. This situation is quite possibly the most complicated one I have ever been in. I feel a great deal of support from people I don’t know, as well as my friends and family members. I have decided to not back down – I am innocent. The the people attacking my reputation have only one goal in mind – to have me step down,» said the governor of the Bank of Latvia Ilmārs Rimšēvičs during a press conference on Tuesday, 20 February.

The number of people working in Latvia’s culture sector is equal to 4.5% of the total number of employed people in the country. This proportion is also larger than the average one across the European Union, according to data published by Eurostat.

Considering that Latvia’s Education and Science Ministry has several ongoing industry reforms, it would be best to put the proposal for compulsory secondary education on hold, said Education and Science Minister Kārlis Šadurskis during a meeting of Saeima’s Education, Culture and Science Committee.

Association of Latvian Commercial Banks sees a need for the European Central Bank (ECB) to become more involved in the discussion and help resolve the situation, considering evaluation of ABLV Bank’s business model is in direct competence of ECB.

The largest fast food catering restaurant network in Finland and Baltic States – Hesburger – plans to invest approximately EUR 11.5 million in business development this year. EUR 5.5 million are planned to be invested in Latvia’s market, says Hesburger Development Director Ieva Salmela.

On Tuesday, 20 February, air temperature in central and northern parts of Finland dropped to -27° C… -31° C in morning hours. In Norway, close to the Finnish border, air temperature has dropped as far as -34° C, according to data from meteorological stations.

It is not impossible that someone may want to undermine Latvia’s financial sector, said chairman of Latvian Finance and Capital Market Commission Pēters Putniņš in an interview to Rīta Panorāma programme on Tuesday, 20 February.

There are serious risks associated with European Union’s co-financed project for the revitalization of Skanste neighbourhood, including construction of Skanste tramway line, says member of Riga City Council and For Latvia’s Development party Viesturs Zeps.

Latvia’s society believes the KGB documents should be made publicly accessible immediately. In addition, residents say they are confident in their ability to discuss those documents without the country’s supervision, which takes the form of expert opinions prevailing over society’s moral views, as stated by guest researcher of History Institute of the University of Latvia M. His. Marta Starostina.

«What we have observed in the past several days is that Latvia’s financial sector has received several heavy strikes as a result of the government’s uncoordinated and chaotic actions. Prime Minister Māris Kučinskis has evidently ‘disappeared’ and offers no clear plans to resolve the crisis, whereas Finance Minister Dana Reizniece-Ozola says different things in every interview. Such behaviour will not help resolve the crisis. It could instead pull the country’s financial sector in a much deeper crisis,» says chairman of For Latvia’s Development Juris Pūce.

As a security measure, the governor of the Bank of Latvia Ilmārs Rimšēvičs has been applied with a prohibition to take post, said Latvian Prime Minister Māris Kučinskis after a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers.